(3)Yu Narukami vs (16)Shadow the Hedgehog vs (25)Kat 2013
Results Round One Monday, July 29th, 2013 Ulti's Analysis Matches close to 50-35-15 in a 3way poll is about as boring as a 65-35 1v1 match, but these are the sorts of things we had to sit through to get the early round fodder out of this contest. Shadow the Hedgehog didn't win this match through being popular -- far from it, as almost everyone hates the dude -- he won it by default. No one cares about Persona's characters, and no one knows who in the hell Kat even is. It's as simple as that. Although for Shadow's 7 fans, this was better than the garbage showings he usually puts out. Even through this contest, the only thing Shadow has ever done of any relevance was score 45% on Mario all the way back in 2003. But hey, he managed to get 50% in a poll against two people no one cares about before getting crushed in round 2, so there's that. I'm still confused as to how a guy that started out with so much promise is just LOATHED, even by his own fans. Did Sega really drop the ball that hard? Zen's (Late) Analysis I usually only skim Ulti's analysis of each match because I don't want to sound derivative of his writing. Ulti has way more technical information and reading his write-ups for close matches are super entertaining. I skip over the analysis for matches like this one, though. But I did read what he had to say here: "I'm still confused as to how Shadow, a guy that started out with so much promise is just LOATHED, even by his own fans. Did Sega really drop the ball that hard?" I have some things to say about Shadow's popularity in the fanbase. GameFAQs is definitely not a haven for hardcore Sonic fans, but wherever I find pockets of the fandom, people love Shadow unironically. He's really the only character in the series with any kind of depth. Sonic fast. Knuckles punch. Tails smart. Shadow has a tragic past, and as basic as his origins are, at least there's some conflict there. Yeah, there's a ton of "ow, the edge," but that's pretty unique in the franchise, and you can't fault SEGA for trying to do something different with these furry weirdos. They just went too early-2000s with it, because it was the early 2000s. People loved it then, then were ashamed, but now people love it again. Like Pokemon? As for the "7 Shadow fans," I'm living with one, and wake up to this every day. I'm not in complete defense of how ridiculous Shadow is, though. If you want a laugh, like a real hearty belly laugh, watch this video from the 9m30s mark for about 45 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=570&v=flP-4ucN15k It's fucking terrible. SEGA knows people like Shadow but they aren't willing to spend more than like $20 and a pack of Skittles on his DLC pack. But you know who knows how to treat a franchise right? There's a ton of evidence pointing to Shadow being included as an Echo of Sonic in Smash Ultimate. If it all works out, Shadow will probably get a tiny boost in power. Also if he doesn't say "THIS IS THE ULTIMATE" before his Final Smash it'll be the biggest missed opportunity in gaming history. Yu was repping a game that came out in 2008, and because he really didn't have a name and his game was still pretty cult, he didn't make it in 'til 2013. He didn't perform great here, yeah, but Persona has slowly moved from being a Board 8 sweetheart to a GameFAQs sweetheart and now a mainstream sweetheart. If Joker makes the field this year, he might be able to escape Round 1. As for Yu, yeah, he's still around, but P5 characters have recency and cooler designs. As for Kat, her franchise is basically dead before it began. Due to poor sales, Sony decided to shut down the online servers of Gravity Rush 2 after a little more than a year, leading to backlash from the 7 fans of the series: https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/12/16883496/gravity-rush-2-online-servers-shutdown-date Kat has a great design, I did her pic here, and I remember spending a ton of time touching it up and making sure she looked good for her only contest appearance ever. If we ever see Kat again it would be a small miracle. I'm not a big Gravity Rush fan, I only played the Vita one for a bit then got the PS4 version on PS+, but the games look pretty cool and have a great aesthetic. The controls are fucking weird and gimmicky though and I can see why it never caught on. I hear GR2 is a big improvement, but it's already destined to fade into gaming obscurity. Also the games are called "Gravity Daze" in Japan but Americans don't know that word and "Rush" is more EXTREME ps make Kirby look angry those fat ugly Americans love that Category:2013 Contest Matches